The purpose of the study was to train participants on the nutritional values (carbohydrates) of various food items and evaluate the effect over three weeks. Twenty-seven participants were assigned to three different conditions. Initially, participants pre-sorted cards labeled with food items and categories, and any incorrectly sorted items were identified and customized for each participant. Tailored stimuli were then used for many-to-one conditional discrimination training. Conditions 1 and 2 aimed to establish three-member classes, while condition 3 aimed for five-member classes. Participants in all conditions sorted food items into categories of “more than 40,” “20–40,” and “less than 20” grams of carbohydrates. Additionally, participants in conditions 2 and 3 could sort items into a “don’t know” category. Maintenance of the learned categories was tested after one week. Participants who did not meet the mastery criterion received additional training and testing. A follow-up test was conducted two weeks after the maintenance test. During both the maintenance and follow-up phases, tests for emergent relations and sorting were conducted. The results showed that most participants responded correctly in both the emergent relations and sorting tests. The majority of participants did not require additional training or testing, and the equivalence classes were maintained across all conditions over the three-week period.

With the breakthroughs and innovative developments in nanotechnology, research on the application of nanomedicine in cancer therapy has so far seen tremendous expansion and success. Intelligent stimulus-responsive nanocarriers are an emerging field of research and have great interest in cancer therapy owing to the fascinating properties such as excellent targeting function, high drug loading capacity, and targeted on-demand release properties. Responsive nanomaterials can be designed and constructed according to the dosing context and therapeutic needs, at the same time, activated by internal bio-stimuli (pH, redox, and enzymes) and/or external stimuli (ultrasound, light, temperature, and magnetic), respectively. What’s more, smart nanocarriers are also utilized for the precise and controllable release of antitumor drugs from cancer tissues and cells to achieve efficient diagnosis and treatment of tumors. Deeply investigated, responsive nanocarriers have attracted considerable attention due to their ability to release precisely at tumor-specific sites. Herein, we review the recent advances of novel stimuli-responsive nanocarriers in the field of cancer therapy. Finally, the challenges and application prospects of smart nanocarriers are further elaborately discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has brought about unprecedented economic and social consequences worldwide. The implementation of isolation measures, including national and international travel restrictions, significantly affected contact-intensive sectors such as tourism. During this lockdown period, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was crucial in maintaining connectivity and enabling remote activities. Governments across the world implemented discretionary measures to mitigate the crisis's adverse effects on economic activity. This paper aims to analyze whether the level of ICT adoption and the importance of tourism influence the fiscal policy efforts pursued by governments. Based on the results of a linear regression analysis for 154 countries, the findings suggest that in countries with higher international tourism receipts, the governments had to promote higher fiscal stimulus. At the same time, ICT development diminished the efforts of the fiscal policy response to the crisis since it facilitated economic resilience. The findings of this study can contribute to understanding how governments responded to the pandemic crisis and the factors that influenced their fiscal policy decisions.

Thanks to the Chinese government's strong monetary stimulus initiative, the Chinese stock market has seen a recent surge. A similar scenario in history reminds us that such a surge carries significant potential risks and undermines economic sustainability. This study examines the economic stimulus by the Chinese government during 2008 and 2015 utilizing monetary and real estate policy to stimulate stock market expansion, and identifies a pattern of path dependency in the government's approach to economic challenges. In the context of the fiscal pressures of 2024, the government has again employed an extraordinary level of intervention to catalyze a significant uptick in the stock market. While this has led to a temporary increase in stock market indices, it poses substantial risks. The potential for a stock market bubble, detached from fundamental values, could precipitate a subsequent market collapse. Additionally, the government's market stimulus may be aimed at providing financial support to underperforming state-owned enterprises, which in the long-run will damage China's economic sustainability. There is also a concern that the measures to stimulate the stock market could interlink the bond market and banking sector with the equity, potentially inciting broader systemic risks. Furthermore, the housing market crisis and investors' skepticism towards the extent of China's marketization reforms will also intensify. Overall, we believe that the current round of stock market stimulus is not sustainable and leaves the door open for future risks.

Micro/Nano Robot is an intelligent and efficient microrobot that can perform specific tasks under the influence of external stimuli. Depending on the application scenarios, the microrobot can adaptively transform into appropriate functional forms under different external stimuli, thus perfectly matching the needs. To date, microbots have been widely used in targeted therapy, drug delivery, tissue engineering, environmental remediation, and other fields. Although the applications of microrobots are promising, there are only a few reviews that can focus on the preparation methods and driving mechanisms. Therefore, it is necessary to outline the current status of the development of these microrobots in order to provide some new insights for the further development of the field. Therefore, this paper reviews the research progress of microrobots in terms of preparation methods, stimulus response mechanisms and applications, and highlights the applicability of different preparation methods and stimulus types. Finally, the current challenges faced by microrobots are highlighted and possible solutions are proposed to facilitate the practical application of microrobots.

An outbreak of a pandemic COVID-19 disease caused by a novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has posed a serious threat to human health and the economy of the whole world. Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, which has also come under the attack of this viral disease. This perspective report aimed to describe the responses of Bangladesh to tackle the COVID-19, particularly on how Bangladesh is dealing with this novel viral disease with limited resources. The first case of a COVID-19 patient was detected in Bangladesh on March 8, 2020. Since then, a total of 2,144 peoples are officially reported as COVID-19 infected with 84 deaths. To combat the COVID-19, the government has taken various steps to tackle the epidemic outbreak of it such as diagnosis of the suspected cases, quarantine of doubted people and isolation of infected patients, local or regional lockdown, grant general leave from all offices for staying home of people, increase public awareness and enforce social distancing and so on. In addition, to address the socio-economic situations, the government announced several financial stimulus packages of about USD 11.17 billion. However, very limited diagnostic facilities, health workers, resources such as hospital beds, personal protective equipment, intensive care unit, and ventilators in the hospitals along with limited public unawareness are the major challenges for Bangladesh to tackle the situation effectively. This report described the responses of Bangladesh to tackle the COVID-19 and discusses prevailing challenges to mitigate this highly contagious disease with limited resources.

The neural system has limited resources to interact with the environment, and this is where attention comes into play. Attention is a complex process that provides numerous benefits, but there has been a longstanding debate about the mechanisms involved in attentional orientation. Two widely proposed mechanisms are top-down and bottom-up, which relate to the organism's current behavioral goal and the salience of environmental stimuli, respectively. However, distinguishing between these mechanisms can be challenging in both behavioral and neural studies. This review introduces a new conceptualization in which both top-down and bottom-up mechanisms are viewed as aspects of the same process. This unified approach aims to prepare the organism to face stimuli and events based on its prior experiences, immediate (the current task that he/she is aware of), and innate (to be alive) demands.

Objectives: The term "inflammageing” describes the process of inflammation-induced aging that leads living cells to a state of permanent cell cycle arrest due to chronic antigenic irritation. This in vitro study aimed to shed light on the mechanisms of “inflammageing” on human oral cells. Methods: Primary cultures of human gingival fibroblasts (hGFs) were exposed to variable pro-inflammatory stimuli, including lipopolysaccharide (LPS), Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNFa), and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) collected from active periodontal pockets of systemically healthy patients. Inflammageing was studied through two experimental models, employing either late-passage (“aged”) cells (p.10) that were exposed to the pro-inflammatory stimuli or early-passage (“young”) cells (p.1) continuously exposed during a period of several passages (up to p.10) to the above-mentioned stimuli. Cells were evaluated for the expression of beta-galactosidase activity (histochemical staining), senescence-associated genes (qPCR analysis), and biomarkers related to a Senescence Associated Secretory Phenotype (SASP), through proteome profile analysis and bioinformatics. Results: A significant increase (p<0.05) of beta-galactosidase-positive cells was observed after exposure to each pro-inflammatory stimulus. The senescence-associated gene expression included upregulation for CCND1 and downregulation for SUSD6, and STAG1, a profile typical for cellular senescence. Overall, pro-inflammatory priming of late-passage cells caused more pronounced effects in terms of senescence, than long-term exposure of early-passage cells to these stimuli. Proteomic analysis showed induction of SASP, evidenced by upregulation of several pro-inflammatory proteins (IL-6, IL-10, IL-16, IP-10, MCP-1, MCP-2, M-CSF, MIP-1a, MIP-1b, TNFb, sTNF-RI, sTNF-RII, TIMP-2) implicated in cellular aging and immune responses. The least potent impact on the induction of SASP was provoked by LPS and the most pronounced by GCF. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that long-term exposure of hGFs to various pro-inflammatory signals induced or accelerated cellular senescence with the most pronounced impact noted for the late-passage cells. The outcome of this analyses provides insights into oral chronic inflammation, as a potential confounder of age-related diseases.

Pancreatic beta cells secrete insulin in response to stimulation with glucose and other nutrients, and impaired insulin secretion plays a central role in development of diabetes mellitus. Pharmacological management of diabetes includes various antidiabetic drugs, including incretins. The incretin hormones, glucagon-like peptide-1 and gastric inhibitory polypeptide, potentiate glucose-stimulated insulin secretion by binding to G protein-coupled receptors, resulting in stimulation of adenylate cyclase and production of the secondary messenger cAMP, which exerts its intracellular effects through activation of protein kinase A or the guanine nucleotide exchange protein 2A. The mo-lecular mechanisms behind these two downstream signaling arms are still not fully elucidated and involve many steps in the stimulus-secretion coupling cascade, ranging from the proximal regula-tion of ion channel activity, to the central Ca2+ signal, and the most distal exocytosis. In addition to modifying intracellular coupling, the effect of cAMP on insulin secretion could also be at least partly explained by the impact on intercellular coupling. In this review, we systematically describe the possible roles of cAMP at these intra- and inter-cellular signaling nodes, keeping in mind the rele-vance for the whole organism and translation to humans.

The advent of remote work has ushered in a new era of economic transformation, redefining the dynamics of local economies, and unleashing the multiplier effect on a national scale. This abstract explores the profound implications of remote work on local economies, dissecting how the multiplier effect operates within a nation's economic landscape. The multiplier effect is a fundamental economic concept that highlights how changes in spending and investment can create a ripple effect, leading to a magnified impact on an economy. This concept gains new significance in the context of remote work, as it triggers a chain reaction of economic activities that radiate from remote workers to their local communities. The increased flexibility and reduced geographical constraints of remote work have reshaped the allocation of resources. The continued reliance on remote work may lead to a reduction in demand for commercial real estate in urban centers, necessitating adaptive urban planning strategies. In conclusion, the rise of remote work has initiated a transformative era for local economies, driven by the multiplier effect. By amplifying the impacts of spending and investment, remote work fosters job diversification, innovation, and infrastructure development within communities. As remote work continues to reshape the landscape of work and life, understanding and harnessing its multiplier effect remains paramount for policymakers, businesses, and local communities alike. The multiplier effect is a concept in economics that illustrates how changes in spending can lead to larger impacts on a nation's economy through a chain reaction of economic activities. It demonstrates that an initial injection of spending, whether from government expenditure, investment, or consumption, doesn't just have a one-time impact. Instead, it sets off a series of interconnected spending and income-generation processes that result in a larger overall increase in economic activity. t's important to note that the multiplier effect can work in reverse as well. If there's a decrease in spending, it can lead to a decrease in economic activity and income through the same chain reaction process. This concept highlights the interconnected nature of economic activities and emphasizes the significance of changes in spending patterns on a nation's overall economic health. The magnitude of the multiplier effect is influenced by factors such as the marginal propensity to consume (the proportion of additional income that households spend), leakages (savings and taxes that reduce the multiplier effect), and the extent to which additional spending creates additional production capacity within the economy. Understanding the multiplier effect is essential for policymakers, as it helps them gauge the potential impacts of changes in fiscal and monetary policies on the economy.

The objective of this paper is to present a mathematical formalism that states a bridge between Physics and Psychology, concretely between analytical dynamics and personality theory in order to open new insights in this theory. In this formalism energy plays a central role. First, the short-term personality dynamics can be measured by the General Factor of Personality (GFP) response to an arbitrary stimulus. This GFP dynamical response is modelled by a stimulus-response model: an integro-differential equation. The bridge between Physics and Psychology is provided when the stimulus-response model can be formulated as a linear second order differential equation and, subsequently, reformulated as a Newtonian equation. This bridge is strengthened when the Newtonian equation is derived from a minimum action principle, obtaining the current Lagrangian and Hamiltonian functions. However, the Hamiltonian is a non-conserved energy. Then, some changes provide a conserved Hamiltonian function: the Ermakov-Lewis energy. This energy is presented, as well as the GFP dynamical response that can be derived from it. An application case is presented: an experimental design in which 28 individuals consumed 26.51 g of alcohol. This experiment provides an ordinal scale for the Ermakov-Lewis energies that predicts the effect of a single dose of alcohol.

Two-photon imaging of light stimulus-evoked neuronal activity has been used to study all neuron classes in the vertebrate retina, from the photoreceptors to the retinal ganglion cells. Clearly, the ability to study retinal circuits down to the level of single synapses or zoomed out at the level of complete populations of neurons, has been a major asset in our understanding of this beautiful circuit. In this chapter, we discuss the possibilities and pitfalls of using an all-optical approach in this highly light-sensitive part of the brain.